The Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS), www.nationalservice.gov, is a federal agency that helps improve American lives. Through the CNCS national service programs — AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund and Volunteer Generation Fund — more than 5 million volunteers have signed on to help their fellow citizens through service.
A program of AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is a full-time, team-based residential program for men and women ages 18—24.
The volunteer-driven Pacifica Gardens, www.pacifica-gardens.org, is an extraordinary 30,000 sq. ft. urban agricultural project that took over an abandoned soccer field at Linda Mar School in April of 2008 and literally changed the face of the earth.
Recently, all three organizations came together to help Pacifica grow. Pacifica Gardens wrote a grant to CNCS. CNCS granted that dream and on March 8, the AmeriCorps NCCC (10-member) Green Team arrived in Pacifica and got to work.
Kaitlyn Breaux joined AmeriCorps NCCC the first time, two years out of college. She decided to sign on for one more 10-month commitment and is serving as team leader. Along with Breaux, the members of the Pacifica Gardens AmeriCorps team are: Daniel Lees, Miesha Minnick, Josh Richardson, Kevin Beebe, Laura Schneiter, Thomas Adams, James Cook, Alicia Plunkett and Ariana Kalziqi.
“Right before we came here, we worked at Easter Seals Camp Harmon in Boulder Creek,” Breaux said. “We built some stairs and a ramp and did other campground maintenance.”
In Pacifica, the team is building 27 raised beds, including ADA-compliant garden beds. These raised beds increase the drainage in the garden, reduce gopher damage, and allow more accessibility for garden volunteers, including those with physical limitations. The team is also building propagation tables, to grow plant “starts,” and two storage structures — one for wheelbarrows and the other for compost materials.
Pacifican Rig Terrell, a Pacifica Gardens volunteer, did all the layout construction drawings and is working as the site supervisor on the project.
“It’s great to be part of a community that comes together for good causes,” Terrell noted, “and there is no more basic need than food.”
That “community” includes Lowe’s Home Improvement, which to date has provided Pacifica Gardens with over $4,000 in discounts on construction materials, supplies and tools. It also includes Lyngso Garden Materials for their donations of top soil, compost and gravel, and Shamrock Ranch who loaned the Gardens their tractor.
“In the AmeriCorps program you learn as you work,” Breaux said. “Our site supervisor gives us our assignments and we are the labor. I’ve learned a lot to date including trail building and construction, all kinds of work that I didn’t know before. It’s very rewarding.”
The Pacifica Gardens AmeriCorps team comes from all over. Breaux is from Illinois. The other members come from California, Colorado, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C.
“I signed on with AmeriCorps right out of high school,” Daniel Lees of Tennessee said, “What I am learning is helping me think about a career. Because of AmeriCorps I’ve gone to places I might not see otherwise. It has also provided me with the opportunity of learning what I can do, as opposed to just coasting along on the things I already knew how to do.”
The team’s next stop is Eugene, OR. They will work with the City’s Parks and Open Space Department building cabins at a campground and renovating a boardwalk.
“Once you participate in AmeriCorps, you have connections all over the United States,” Breaux said. “It’s awesome.”
On Friday, March 13, a number of individuals including Pacificans Roy Earnest and Gail Benton Shoemaker, both program officers with CNCS, as well as staff members from the AmeriCorps NCCC Sacramento campus, came out to meet all the Corps members and garden volunteers working on this joint project.
“I feel honored to work for CNCS,” Earnest said. “They are doing great things all across the country and this is a perfect example.”
“These young people with AmeriCorps devote close to a year of their lives to national service,” Benton Shoemaker said. “They meet a community and they help that community, and they in turn gain skills which may help them decide their career. We are so proud of our AmeriCorps members.”
Pacifica’s Mayor Karen Ervin also came out to see national service in action.
“The phenomenal work done by Pacifica Gardens supports our local schools and the Resource Center and we are deeply appreciative,” the Mayor said. “We are also grateful to the amazing work of the AmeriCorps team and the Corporation for National & Community Service for their commitment to serving so many communities on behalf of all citizens.”
“The commitment of these young adults not only has a positive impact on the communities that they serve but it has a positive impact on them,” Ervin went on to say. “I encourage our youth to consider a year of national service as a way of giving back to your community.”
On March 23, Mayor Ervin will issue a proclamation to spotlight the positive and lasting impact of national service and to thank those who serve. In doing so, Mayor Ervin joins mayors across the country for the Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service.
Pacifica Tribune correspondent Jean Bartlett can be reached at editor@jeansmagazines.org.